Avila's El Ranchito - Review #4

Date of Visit: February 19, 2008

Avila's El Ranchito 2800 Newport Blvd Newport Beach, CA 92663 (949) 675-6855 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site

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Taco Tuesday Photo Shoot

On this leap year day I present some photos from when I met up recently with some co-workers at Avila's El Ranchito (for some reason a lot of people think it's called "Avila's Mi Ranchito" or "Avila's el Ranchero") in Newport Beach for Taco Tuesday.

Admission is $5 which gets you unlimited food from the Taco Tuesday-only Taco Bar and good deals on drinks. I think my soda was $3 and it came with free refills. The taco bar has tacos with three different kinds of meat, chips and salsa, burritos, taquitos and quesadillas. The servers even get into the theme with special Taco Tuesday t-shirts.

When you make your trip to the Taco Bar the server there scoops your choice of meat into a corn tortilla (probably Mission brand) and from there you can top it off with fillings such as lettuce, tomato, cilantro, onion, shredded cheese and avocado sauce. I had one chicken taco and one carnitas taco. Since you get to make the taco yourself it'd be hard to complain if it wasn't to your liking. The meats were all tender and moist and spiced just enough for the predominantly gringo crowd. The burritos, taquitos, and quesadilla wedges are pre-made and they seem to move enough so that anything you grab will generally be pretty fresh. Definitely a good deal for five bucks (tax included) but I'd even pay $6 or $7 if they'd start using handmade tortillas.

It's not really part of Taco Tuesday but I ordered the strawberry churros that I'd seen on the menu at another location. These come with lots of whipped cream (couldn't eat hardly any of it) and there's hardly any (if any) crumbly cinnamon/sugar mixture. The neat freak streak in me actually kind of liked that and they were certainly sweet enough with the strawberry filling.

My rating is just based on the Taco Tuesday aspect of this Avila's location and taking into account that this is quite possibly the first Taco Tuesday I've officially taken part in since beginning the blog, so, without further adieu, I grant the Taco Tuesday at Avila's El Ranchito in Newport Beach a five Speedy Gonzales rating:



Here's some more pictures:

Click here to see the whole photo album at flickr.

Avila's El Ranchito - Review #3

Date of Visits: July 24 and 25, 2007 and October 10, 2011

Avila's El Ranchito 2515 E Coast Hwy Corona del Mar, CA 92625 (949) 644-8226 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing at Yelp Official Site

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Here's some photos of the new Avila's Corona del Mar location, just across and down PCH from their prior location. They also have a little bit of a Mexican market in the front:

These are photos of their old Corona del Mar location:

I stopped at Avila's last week when I was out running errands and got some lunch. I'd never been to this location before so, hey, new material for the blog. Little did I know I would be back again the very next day but that's what happens when you absentmindedly leave your debit card behind.

Of course the meal started out with the requisite complementary chips and salsa, but what made Avila's salsa unique was the very distinct green onion component. Some of the green onion slices in it were like manhole covers.

On my first visit I ordered their Taco Tuesday special, the filet mignon tacos with rice and beans. Trust me, there's filet mignon in there:

Bits of the filet mignon were a little on the tough side, but with those out of the way and stuffed with some rice and lettuce and the salsa these were some fine tacos.

My meal the next day was even better, a chile relleno/pork tamale combo plate. The pork tamale had veritably exploded and was overflowing with nice cubed chunks of carnitas. The chile relleno was light and fluffy and I actually ate more of the chile pepper than I normally do.

And there's nothing wrong with showing a little American pride while retaining your heritage:

I wanted to try the strawberry-filled churros I saw on the menu but each time I was brought the check without being asked if I wanted dessert. I didn't fight it because I probably don't need dessert with every lunch (or maybe any lunch for that matter). I still want to try those churros sometime though.

Avila's El Ranchito in Corona del Mar earns a 3.5 Speedy Gonzales rating:

Avila's El Ranchito - Review #2 (Photo Super Post)

Date of Visit: January 2, 2007

Avila's El Ranchito 24406 Muirlands Blvd Lake Forest, CA 92630 (949) 855-4989 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site

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After taking numerous clandestine photos of Avila's El Ranchito during my visit last August I was invited back by the owners and given free rein to take photos shortly before they opened for business one day. Like The Chili Pepper in Orange (and the next place to be reviewed here) this restaurant is decorated to the extreme. The decor is obviously Mexican but with heavy doses of Hawaiian, tiki, and surfing motifs thrown into the mix, all of which is fine by me.

After taking the pictures I tried out their house soup which had been recommended to me by somebody while I was dining at another Mexican restaurant.

I wanted to finish off with some of their deep-fried ice cream again but the combination of a late breakfast and early lunch nixed that idea. I got the small bowl of the soup and it was still very filling.

Avila's El Ranchito in Lake Forest maintains a strong four Speedy Gonzales rating: